Business Flourish

Master the Art of Authenticity and Watch Your Business Flourish

welcome to if I'd only known where seasoned online business experts share valuable tips to improve your mindset increase your revenue and gain Insight on what they would have done if they'd only known what they know now when they started their businesses and now your host Sher celd welcome to today's episode I am so excited to have Inga face and cavat here today and you are in for treat because she is going to share with you her Brilliance she's an authenticity strategist she left her engineering career to follow her entrepreneurial Spirit we all love that and is now pursuing her dream life full of Faith Family Freedom flexibility and fitness she enjoys empowering women to live their best life and helps women become top earners by building authentic relationships that treat people like humans and not numbers welcome Ina thank you for having me Sher I'm super excited to be here with you today oh I am so glad to have you here you know I love this topic of authenticity and I you know it's I think we've lost a lot of that and I'm not quite sure that the pandemic didn't make it worse to be honest um so tell me a little bit about that I know you talk about mastering the art of authenticity and how that can help your business flourish so tell me a little bit about what your journey is around Au authenticity and why you believe that okay so I grew up well really built my business um in the direct sales world and when I did that a lot of the people that were mentoring me or people that were really around me in my leadership were extroverts so at that time I felt like for me to be successful I had to mimic what was around me which was really not truly me because I Am Naturally an ENT as you already mentioned I'm an engineer so I'm not at that time I was not a people person at all I was one of those folks that you know if I saw someone in the room I really wouldn't go up to them because I really wouldn't know how to talk to them at all in addition to that if I met someone and I thought that they they were cool I would kind of have to feel them out before I would reveal the real Inga I will say so that was how I started building my business faking basically faking it until I made it um as a successful direct seller but oftentimes when I did that I never felt good to me I used so much energy trying to be something that I wasn't to the point that I just didn't want to do it anymore yeah so during the pandemic I don't know it would almost it allowed me to really use my innate gifts because I'm naturally a tech geek and I can get in front of a camera and talk to people and act silly and do those kind of things and if you didn't know me you probably would think well she's not an introvert she she's an expert not because after I do all of that I have to go in my happy place and recharge by myself yeah so I wanted to let those other folks that are like me that are my fellow introvert and often times when I said introvert I noticed this as well people really didn't want to own up to being an introvert because they saw it as something as bad so that was another thing that really kind of hurt my heart too because as an introvert there's nothing bad about us matter of fact I think when you think about an introvert we have the qualities of a salesperson because when it comes down to sales people want to buy they don't want to be sold to so it's very important to listen to our clients and Prospects to really get a feel for what they want and what I often felt like I was doing because I was doing all this extrovertedness that really wasn't me I really truly was not listening to people and finding out what they truly needed I was more having more of a transactional type of interaction or relationship with them to the point that if they they would just automatically assume that if I was calling them or if I was texting them it was because of the product that I was selling it wasn't just to say hey girl how you doing you know what's going on with you you know the last time I talked to you you told me XYZ was going on in your life is it better now how's it going now what's new with you that kind of thing right so because of that I really wanted to really transform my business to have more of those relationships because I realize that at the end of the day that entrepreneurship is a team sport and if I continue to have these transactional type of relationships with with people I'm not really getting to know them for the person that they are because at the end of the day people are buying me first Inga who happens to sell XYZ product so I wanted to share with my fellow introverts one that it was cool to be an introvert it's a great thing to have when you when you're in sales because you're listening and most of the time people don't like salespeople because they feel like we don't listen and then secondly we can use the things that are n given to us and not have to use all these all this energy to be something that we weren't so I wanted to give them a happy place yes that they felt like yeah I can still be me right and still be a top earner and be successful in you know my my direct sales business my coaching business if I'm doing some kind of consult am I'm a consultant a business consultant of some sort I can do that and still be me oh that is so true I'm introvert as well and people say you're there's no way you're an introvert so then I started saying well I'm a learned extrovert it's like no that's not it it's what you said earlier it's it's I can be big and and as vibrant and as as uh out there if you will as I need to be and then I need to come back and I need to have quiet time and and and recharge and so people don't people don't get that distinction know a lot about introverts versus extroverts was great so and I love what you talked about with authenticity and and in um in the industry the kind of personal development industry we talk a lot about impostor syndrome and I think that's kind of the authenticity you know reverse is people feel like that that they're they're an impostor in whatever their their field they're in and so they feel that in inauthenticity it feels inauthentic to them and that's when they start feeling that impostor syndrome so yeah I thought that was interesting that there's that kind of juxtaposition um with being authentic and and how that impacts imposter syndrome as well right so tell me about I know you work with your with your clients to to help them learn that art of authenticity so what's one of the biggest keys that you see that we need to be aware of in order to to be to be in that authentic place right so what I think I think you really need to be true to yourself figure out what really resonates with you I know as an introvert and with the introverts that I work with I know that they're outgoing with people that they know I know they love to talk about their product or service it's just the cold Outreach that they really struggle with that's that's where they struggle because an introvert is not going to just walk up to somebody and just start talking they're just not going to do it so I wanted to be able to bless them with a way for them to be who they truly are but still be able to expand and grow their business because we all know that if you're out of lease you're out of business when it comes to building a business regardless of what your business is so I wanted to give them what I call the perfect ice breaker for an introvert ah cool love it share it with it so the perfect Icebreaker from my vantage point is a survey because a survey allows an introvert to feel real it allows them to feel authentic and it helps them truly build genuine connections that will convert to sales it initially just basically pre-qualifies the people that we should talk to and then when we start talking to them we know a little bit about what they are wanting help with and then we'll able to be passionate about that product or service that we are we are um representing whether it be our our something that we personally created or something uh you know we're an affiliate for someone else but we know that they are our person because they filled out this survey and that was one of the things that I wanted to bless all of my introvert girlfriends with when it came to building their business because they don't have to go out and do what I used to do and you know get your I would have to literally go okay get your mind right yeah no I hear you I've been there I've been there as well yep you're getting ready to walk into this networking meeting no I would't even say networking meeting because that's that's a setting that you know that people are there to Network right I would call it you just do an everyday life and you see somebody that you want to go up and talk to to find out if they're your person but you're trying to you know get your mind right as far as what you're going to say to her how you're going to say it if she do if she's not interested how will you gracefully walk away I mean it's I mean all of that stuff you're making a lot of stuff up yeah all of the stuff you're going through trying to figure out how am I gonna talk to this person where you could have just asked her if she could fill out a survey and based on her answers would know if she was your person so right that that is that is one of the things that is one of the things in my toolbox that I have really enjoyed being able to do and then helping others do it too while cutting that learning curve right that's great well I know we'll we'll talk more about how you can help people do that um so what do what do you think is key to being able to build authentic relationships I mean I think I heard you just talk about the surveys and that's a to kind of the the Icebreaker if you Willer right yeah what what comes after that what I think really comes after that is it's I think it's like dating I I really see it as it that you're literally dating your lease or you're dating your prospects now for those of you that have a significant other and may be in a um you know serious relationship you know that when you met that person if they came up to you and said I want to marry you or you know I want to spend my the rest of my life with you you would look at them like they were crazy insane because you're just like dude or girlfriend you don't even know me I mean how how are you going to come at me like that you don't even know me at all so when I think when it comes to building those authentic relationships is you spend time with that person right you know these days we do one on ones and some of them may be a 15minute call and some may even go an hour and I've had those times when I'm talking to somebody and I feel like as my lone loss friend that I I have I mean I just met today but after connecting with them it's just like I like her or I like him he is just so cool and as a result of that I want to spend more time with them very similar to what we do when we're dating we are spending time with the person we're getting to know them and every time the more time we spend the more we get to know about the person and how is that going to help us in the future well it's then going to allow us to be able to refer them out because we are learn learning more about what they do who they serve and how they serve them so that more that time building of of of that relationship growing and developing we can truly be a relation um not relationship a collaboration partner with them right or we can do be a referral source for them yeah and that's and that's how you really build those true relationships yeah I always I always um think about I love the word curious and I always think how can I be curious about this person and you know asking questions and that's where the the introverts introverts listening skills come in right oh yeah for sure and just be curious and just ask questions about people and and that takes the pressure off you too right because you're you're asking them to share about themselves and people like to talk about themselves oh yeah they do so yeah that's very cool um so when you when you've built you know when you you've reached them in the right way through a survey or whatever that environment is that's going to help them to kind of open the relationship and then you've built that relationship um with questions and getting to know them then you know there comes a point a point for all of us where most of us here listening our business owners that we want to create turn that that relationship into a further collaboration or eventually a client so what are the things that you find are most effective um to to kind of move people towards that conversion if you will to a a partnership or a client well what I found is I have a YouTube Chann Channel and what I was told when I first started my business was that was a means to get the word out about what I do who I serve and how I serve them and when I interact with people and find out more about what they do I'm often finding ways that we can collaborate and often ways that I find it's really easy similar to what we've done Sherry is to swap you know swap on each other's channels if we have a similar Niche but provide a different service that is an awesome way to swap because you're sharing your clients with her she's sharing her clients with you and you guys are building this together because that I think I've already said this and I'll say it again entrepreneurship is a team sport so it helps you further expand um your your uh your your reach as well as you know just giving you more time to interact with that part that's another date that's another date that you and that person are able to do and then you can also after the collaboration is over because you're doing these swaps I'm pretty sure that person can refer you well girl you know I did I just met up with so and so and so and so I think you guys would be a great match I know we had great chemistry I think you would really connect with her or you give them a couple of referrals as well so it's not just kind of a oneand done with the collaboration but then you're further expanding the reach so now this person is a a referral source for you so it's kind of the give to get philosophy yes for sure for sure yeah and that at the end of the day that's what it's all about is is you know life is about relationships and in business it's no different it's about building the relationship and having having the connections and really getting to know people and and being willing also to walk away if you will from people that aren't a good fit for you that's hard for that's hard for a lot of us is is you know well I don't want to give up on them or I don't want them to not like me or whatever it might be but knowing who is your right fit who can you best serve and and you know the best serve is when you have this happening where you're really really connecting with each other that's awes for sure it's funny that you say that because I had a girlfriend of mine um that we've been interacting over the last I would say three right before Co is when we started connecting and I felt like what well how the saying goes if you feel like you're the smartest person in the room you need to find another room yep well I felt like I was that person and I did not want to totally just cut off the relationship because I you know I thought we really made some great connections I really love her as a as a friend but you know as a business person that was trying to level up her business I felt like we need I needed to kind of change my room is what I'll say right but I didn't want to completely cut it off so what I end up doing is I I told her I said hey why don't instead of us meeting every week because that's what we were meeting why don't we do it once a month so the connection is still there right yep I'm still honoring the connection that we have built over this time frame but then it allows it frees me up to be able to go into other rooms where I'm not the the dominant one I'm I'm the I'm the one that is you know learning from the other folks and they're Lifting me up even higher yeah and just just like with friends there are seasons for friends there business too and as we grow and evolve in our business then the the rooms that that we need to be in change exactly so yeah I think that's so true I love that was there anything else about authenticity that you you feel as like a a a core tenant if you will of success um well I guess it makes me think about um my what I call my aame is what I call it um and when I call it my aame is something that I I teach the folks in my tribe that they should use when it comes to building their business and we kind of touched on a lot of what I'm about to say but I'm just going to reiterate it just a little bit more um one thing the first part of my aame is what I call you ask and not assume just like we were just talking about you know you want to make sure that you're asking those questions and um not assuming that your product or your service is for this person it made me think about um a time in my life um my father bought me a vehicle when I was in high school a senior in high school I love this vehicle it was a Mustang okay absolutely love the vehicle and I drove that vehicle um probably for about 20 years 20 20 almost 25 years and I used to have people that came up to me and said girl you still driving that car and I was just thinking yeah it's running and I love it this is like my child I even named it his uh my car's name was Rudy okay I love it so Rudy and I have been around I mean Rudy had gone you was in high school with me Rudy was with me in college grad school I mean you think about all the little transitions in my life I have I love that car and I had somebody ask me well why don't you get a new car I mean you you're driving around this car it's almost 25 years old and why why would you keep driving that car and I was just thinking but you don't understand this car has been through me with me through the thick and thins I mean different phases of my life from high school to college to grad school to working to to getting married to having a child I mean my son my son was in that car okay so I I was like all of these things I don't want to get a new car because of all the things that this car means to me and I remember I was in a car accident somebody hit me in this car and it was total okay I I was devastated I felt like I had lost my best friend literally and at that point was when I actually decided because I I had no choice at that point to get a new car but people assumed that I needed a car because I had an older car but I didn't need a new car in my eyes because of the the symbolic of the car and what it meant to me emotionally I didn't want a new car so that's why I think people see something from the outside and I know many of us have been bombarded with DMS and from virtual assistants and appointment Setters and coaches that think they're going to you know take us to the promised land we're gonna make us 20K a month and all this other stuff they come up with but they don'ts right yeah exactly in 59 seconds exactly but they don't know that's what we need because they have never asked us what we need yeah they just assume based on oh you're a coach oh you're a consultant then they need what I have no you have to ask not assume oh that's that's so true yes so the next one um next aame um thing I want to tell you about is you want to assist versus annoy now often times and you had you had made this comment about how do you transition someone to a client you know you've interacted with them you're building the relationship you may have even had some collaboration type of events together how do you then transition them to a client I think the person transitions into a client when they're ready to Transitions to a client so and and with that said we want to allow them and what I call marinate similar to what we do to our meat to give it that good seasoning and flavor we want them to say that they want what we have more so than try to convince them that what we have is what they want so I think it's very important to allow to people to have that marination time and that when they're ready that they will come to us because in the meantime and between between time we're building that no like and Trust Factor because we all know that that's who people do business with people that they know like and Trust so you got to give them their space to marinate to get that good flavor so that when they're ready to cook you are the Cook they're ready to uh to hire to help them along the way yeah and then last but definitely not least we want to attract people to us and not attack yeah so that is why it's very important that we continue to nurture and U our clients our prospects so that they can come to us and people come to us because they realize we have what they want more so than you know throwing spaghetti on the wall and saying that it's all a numbers game and that we're just going to talk to anybody that's breathing because think everybody is our customer which all of us I'm hoping all of us know that everybody is not your customer and if you're trying to serve everyone you're truly serving no one which is very I know people say that and I can tell that when I hear people say that they're a new entrepreneur because they're just like well I don't want to leave anybody out right but when you do that when you're interacting and building these relationships with different people how are they going to introduce you to your perfect person if they don't know who they are and you tell them oh I serve everyone right well I don't know who that is when I meet Suzie and you tell me it's everyone I suyu does not resonate that that's your person but if you tell me that you're you're serving female entrepreneurs with introverted Tendencies and I meet somebody that's introverted oh I'm gonna say you need to go talk to Inga yeah that's because I've already told you that's who I serve I call that leaning in yeah yeah when people lean in they can know know who you serve exactly and I think think that's very important for us to do don't do the spaghetti thing I can tell you been there done that do work absolutely it doesn't work for you or the people you serve because for you it just makes you over overwhelmed and and fried and for them they're never gonna actually probably hire you because they don't understand what you do to S serve them exactly absolutely very cool well you have shared a wealth of information here I know we're going to kind of come full circle I know at the beginning you talked about the power of surveys and I you have something to share with the audience that will help them figure that out yes so I have the savy survey system and what it is I have given you a guide on how to start your your own survey so you can um not have to attack people you can really attract them to you and find the people that want what you have so um in the survey guide it's a free download you would just go to my website in.com and you would just put your name and your email in and you'll get the survey guide instantaneously so you will then be able to um create that survey and find your people that's awesome and I also yeah and then I also wanted to say I love the survey also when it comes from a marketing point of view because it allows you to hear what people are saying so when somebody's saying that they they want well I'll just use an example they have wrinkles and they're concerned about um their face texture or that kind of thing when you have that information you can then use what they tell you in landing pages that will allow them to get to know you even better so you can provide more value to them through a guide or a checklist or whatever you're selling but you'll be able to write it in their words and they'll be thinking oh my gosh is she in my head exactly yeah so it allows you to truly connect with your people very cool well go to in.com make sure that you get that survey guide because surveys are an amazing way uh to connect with your audience people love taking surveys um so you get great opt-in rates which is always good and then you have more people to be authentic with and to nurture into collaboration partners and referral partners and ultimately clients so thank you so much for that so before I let you go I do have one last question for you okay if you had known everything that you know today what would you when you started your business what would you tell your new entrepreneur self I would tell my new entrepreneur self to trust the process that's first and foremost that it's not going to happen overnight and that you want to use strategies that use your innate gifts and not pretend like you're somebody that you're not and My slogan is do you Boo and I say that all the time to my clients that you want to do things that really truly resonate with the authentic you because that's what people are going to love nobody can do you better than you so when you're yourself people are going to love you for being yourself and and and they can feel and hear your phon as phone you being phony if you choose to do that so I'm asking you not to I want you to be who you truly are because nobody can do you better and there's only one you period that's right exactly absolutely well thank you for that Insight I love that make sure you go to in.com and get the uh survey guide and catch uh future interviews and find out more insights from entrepreneurs on what they wish they had known when they started their business uh check back with us here thank you so much Ina have a great day all right thank you for having me bye for now